Quotables
"We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology."
Carl Sagan
PatentStorm News
Make the Most of Our Site
See this month's Top Inventors and Most Cited Patents.
Stay on top of the latest innovations by subscribing to an RSS feed.
Registered users: Manage your profile.
| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7971571 | Operation control method on the basis of ion current in internal combustion engine The present invention is an operation control method on the basis of an ion current in an internal combustion engine, the method comprising a step of detecting the ion current generated within a combustion chamber 30 so as to control an operating state of the... | 07/05/2011 |
| 7836864 | Internal-combustion-engine combustion condition detection apparatus and combustion condition detection method An internal-combustion-engine combustion condition detection apparatus is provided with an ignition means that makes an ignition plug ignite a fuel; an ignition control means that controls the operation of the ignition means; an ion-current detection means that dete... | 11/23/2010 |
| 7810469 | Combustion control based on a signal from an engine vibration sensor Feedback control of an internal combustion engine is performed based on a signal from a vibration sensor and a crankshaft angle sensor. An energy factor can be computed based on these sensor signals. A vector of energy factor can be computed as a function of crank a... | 10/12/2010 |
| 7798123 | Internal combustion engine control device An ion current corresponding to an amount of ion produced by combustion of air fuel mixture in a combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine is detected and an ion current parameter indicative of combustion state is calculated from the ion current. The prope... | 09/21/2010 |
| 7673614 | Internal-combustion-engine combustion condition detection apparatus and combustion condition detection method An internal-combustion-engine combustion condition detection apparatus is provided with an ignition means that makes an ignition plug ignite a fuel; an ignition control means that controls the operation of the ignition means; an ion-current detection means that dete... | 03/09/2010 |
| 7624718 | Engine control system, vehicle having the same, method for calculating combustion center of gravity, and method for controlling engine An engine control system enables engine control to cause ignition timing to approximate MBT without necessarily measuring torque and combustion pressure. The negative ion current in an engine combustion chamber is measured and a first crank angle B corresponding to ... | 12/01/2009 |
| 7472686 | Control apparatus and method and engine control unit for internal combustion engine A control apparatus and method, and an engine control unit for an internal combustion engine are provided for restraining a torque step and sudden fluctuations in rotation when an air/fuel mixture combustion mode is switched among a plurality of combustion modes, an... | 01/06/2009 |
| 7367319 | Method and apparatus to determine magnitude of combustion chamber deposits A control system and method to dynamically determine a parametric value for combustion chamber deposits (CCD), e.g. in a controlled auto-ignition engine, including in-situ evaluation of thickness of CCD, based on a sensor which monitors combustion. It includes a tem... | 05/06/2008 |
| 7347185 | Unit and method for controlling internal combustion engines An internal combustion engine (1) generates power by burning a mixture of fuel and air in a combustion chamber (3). The internal combustion engine (1) is provided with a crank angle sensor (14), an in-cylinder pressure sensor (15) ... | 03/25/2008 |
| 7325528 | Method of operating a single cylinder two-stroke engine The invention is directed to a method for operating a two-stroke engine having a cylinder in which a combustion chamber is formed and which includes devices for metering fuel and supplying combustion air as well as an ignition device for igniting a mixture in the co... | 02/05/2008 |
| 7318411 | Adaptive ignition dwell based on ionization feedback A system for determining a minimum ignition coil charge duration of an internal combustion engine to meet a desired level of combustion stability includes a sensor in communication with a controller. The sensor is configured to measure the ionization current of a cy... | 01/15/2008 |
| 7302932 | Pre-ignition detection and mitigation A system and method for detecting and mitigating preignition for a multi-cylinder engine is provided. According to one aspect of the disclosure, a method is provided including identifying a preignition event at an affected cylinder; deactivating the affected cylinde... | 12/04/2007 |
| 7258107 | Temperature-controlled fuel injection system for two-stroke engines The present invention provides a system and method for controlling a two-stroke engine in correspondence with exhaust gas temperature. An engine control unit (ECU) receives an output from a temperature sensor mounted in the exhaust pipe. The engine control unit cont... | 08/21/2007 |
| 7257479 | Method and device for controlling an internal combustion engine A method and a device for controlling an internal combustion engine are provided, in which method and device a deviation value is determined based on the comparison of a variable characterizing the combustion process in at least one cylinder with a corresponding set... | 08/14/2007 |
| 7251571 | Methods of diagnosing open-secondary winding of an ignition coil using the ionization current signal In a first embodiment, the present invention is a method of detecting an open secondary winding, including the steps of enabling an integrator, resetting the integrator, detecting an ionization current, integrating the ionization current over a spark window, compari... | 07/31/2007 |
| 7246597 | Method and apparatus to operate a homogeneous charge compression-ignition engine A method and apparatus for controlling engine operation to compensate for effects of combustion chamber deposits (CCDs) on combustion in a controlled auto-ignition engine is presented. Control methodologies comprise operation of variable valve actuation, fuel inject... | 07/24/2007 |
| 7240670 | Extended duration high-energy ignition circuit A follow-on circuit for extending the duration of the spark provided by a spark plug. The circuit is connected between the coil secondary and the spark gap, and has a capacitor that discharges to the point of connection through a resistor and inductor. The resistor ... | 07/10/2007 |
| 7231907 | Variable incremental activation and deactivation of cylinders in a displacement on demand engine A method of regulating displacement in a displacement on demand engine includes determining a desired engine displacement and determining a current engine displacement. The method further includes adjusting activation of a first cylinder to partially achieve the des... | 06/19/2007 |
| 7207317 | Engine control system An engine control system for controlling an engine into which fuel is supplied from a fuel supply system and which is ignited by an ignition system, the engine control system comprising: a detonation detecting device for detecting detonation of said engine; a judgme... | 04/24/2007 |
| 7197913 | Low cost circuit for IC engine diagnostics using ionization current signal This feature of the present invention comprises a method, apparatus, and system for detecting and conditioning an ionization current signal. In one embodiment of the invention, an analog signal conditioning circuit detects and processes the ionization signal. The an... | 04/03/2007 |
| 7141890 | Automobile anti-theft device An automobile anti-theft device disrupting normal operation of an automobile. To attain this, incorporated into an automobile is a module configured to disrupt the normal firing of the automobile's spark plugs upon actuation of a user-controlled controller. In an em... | 11/28/2006 |
| 7121260 | Ignition timing control apparatus for engine An ignition timing control apparatus for an engine includes a controller that sets an ignition timing considering a change of a temperature or a pressure in a combustion chamber at a time when an opening/closing characteristic of an intake valve is changed, the open... | 10/17/2006 |
| 7086382 | Robust multi-criteria MBT timing estimation using ionization signal This feature of the present invention is a robust multi-criteria minimum timing for the best torque (MBT) timing estimation method and apparatus utilizing different ionization signal waveforms that are generated under different engine operating conditions. This feat... | 08/08/2006 |
| 7055500 | Ignition timing control apparatus for internal combustion engine For an internal combustion engine including an in-cylinder injector and an intake port injector, proper ignition timing setting means is provided for setting a proper ignition timing according to the fuel injection ratio between injection from the in-cylinder inject... | 06/06/2006 |
| 7021285 | Control device for internal combustion engine A combustion variation value is detected, and a function that uses the detected combustion variation value is added to CVAR(i−1) to obtain CVAR(i); and using the resulting value, an exhaust gas recirculation amount and an ignition timing are obtained. A combustion... | 04/04/2006 |
| 6994073 | Method and apparatus for detecting ionization signal in diesel and dual mode engines with plasma discharge system An apparatus and method to detect combustion conditions using ion signals for use in a feedback control of a diesel engine is presented. The apparatus is a spark plug type of sensor or a sensor integrated with a fuel injector. The spark plug type of sensor is used t... | 02/07/2006 |
| 6980903 | Exhaust gas control using a spark plug ionization signal This feature of the present invention comprises a method and apparatus to reduce NOx emissions in an internal combustion engine. This feature of the present invention uses a closed loop control of the exhaust gas re-circulation to provide the engine with the either ... | 12/27/2005 |
| 6968825 | Control device for spark-ignition engine A control device for a spark-ignition engine, in which a mixture in a combustion chamber is fired by compression ignition in a part-load range under warm-running conditions, includes an EGR controller incorporating a valve operation controller for controlling intern... | 11/29/2005 |
| 6955157 | System for engine retard limit control The present invention provides a system and method for controlling the retard limit of an engine having one or more cylinders in which combustion occurs. A sensor is employed to detect the ionization of the combustion process in the cylinders. The ionization is rela... | 10/18/2005 |
| 6931836 | Method for NOx reduction of externally-ignited, explosion, internal combustion engines In a method for reducing NOx in the exhaust gas of an externally ignited, explosion-type internal combustion engine that is operated at a lean fuel/air ratio of λ>1 and has a motor control device for controlling λ, the λ value is slidingly controlled a... | 08/23/2005 |
| 6912459 | Control device for an internal combustion engine A control device for an internal combustion engine, including: an ion current detecting unit for detecting an ion current flowing between electrodes, via ions generated in a combustion chamber upon combustion, at a time when a voltage is applied to electrodes arrang... | 06/28/2005 |
| 6883497 | Method of preventing preignition for an internal combustion engine Preignition in an engine is prevented by identifying engine conditions that relate to autoignition. If one or more of the engine conditions exceed a threshold, a controller retards the spark in the engine. The controller detects whether autoignition occurs in the en... | 04/26/2005 |
| 6845753 | System and method for controlling ignition timing in an engine A system and method for controlling ignition timing of an engine is provided. The method includes determining a change in a combustion temperature rise within an engine based on a change in at least one engine operating parameter. The method further includes adjusti... | 01/25/2005 |
| 6832472 | Method and apparatus for controlling exhausted gas emissions during cold-start of an internal combustion engine An in-cylinder ion sensor provides a signal representative of the air/fuel ratio of the charge mixture as an engine starts. The signal representative of the air/fuel ratio is used as a feedback signal for an electronic control unit to perform cold-start closed-loop ... | 12/21/2004 |
| 6763297 | Displacement on demand spark knock detection False spark knock detection is minimized for a displacement on demand engine having activated and deactivated modes. The engine is operated in the activated mode. Knock detection is performed on all cylinders of the engine during the activated mode. The engine is op... | 07/13/2004 |
| 6684851 | Method for determining a functioning parameter of an engine A process for determining an operating parameter of an internal combustion engine as a function of three control parameters (N, P, λ) of this motor, comprises: a) establishing a first map of the operating parameter as a function of two control parame... | 02/03/2004 |
| 6687591 | Method of and apparatus for controlling torque-down upon gear changing Torque-down controlling conducted on an engine torque upon gear changing of an automatic transmission is implemented by converting a demand for a rate of torque-down against the engine torque into a down rate of combustion torque (an objective down rate).... | 02/03/2004 |
| 6670722 | Boat ignition safety apparatus and method A boat ignition safety apparatus and method that prevents a gasoline engine of a boat from being started until the enclosed engine compartment has received proper ventilation for a predetermined period of time to ensure dangerous gasoline fumes have been ... | 12/30/2003 |
| 6644274 | Apparatus for detecting a condition of burning in an internal combustion engine An apparatus for detecting a condition of the burning in an internal combustion engine includes a burning-parameter controlling device for controlling a burning parameter operating on the burning in the internal combustion engine. A burning-condition dete... | 11/11/2003 |
| 6611145 | Motorcycle having a system for combustion diagnostics A motorcycle including a two-cylinder engine. The engine includes a housing, first and second cylinders having first and second combustion chambers, respectively, and first and second pistons reciprocating in the first and second chambers, respectively. T... | 08/26/2003 |
